On Wednesday 5th December, the youngsters backed this up with another emphatic win – this time against Freeston Academy. An outstanding score of 48 – 0 has put Brooksbank into the Yorkshire Cup Semi-Finals.

In other rugby news, former Brooksbank students Tom Holroyd and Morgan Smithies are among the 22-man England Academy squad. Congratulations, boys!

It was scarcely dark when Year 7 students turned up in their blood-curdling best! What a scare fest of hairy monsters, banshee brides, evil schoolgirls and scary skeletons!

A massive thank you to Sixth Form Business Studies students for putting together a brilliant mix of music, games and refreshments.

It’s hard to believe that these ghouls and ghosts only joined us in September! There was a lot of posing and dancing, but best fun by far was mummy wrapping … it’s surprising how far a toilet roll can run!

Maddie Eastwood, winner of the English Brooker Prize, came as a dead dancer (not to be confused with dad dancer!) in a dance outfit, shredded specially for the occasion! “It was an old one and all I needed to do was add some blood to make it halloween-y,” said Maddie.

“Our new Year 7s really threw themselves into the Halloween spirit,” laughed Business Studies teacher, Mrs Temelkovski as Mr Hepworth struggled to keep his poker face. “The Halloween Disco is a great opportunity for new students to express themselves and have fun with their friends; it also allows older students to put their Business Studies acumen into action.” Clearly a win-win situation!

Thank you to our Business Studies students who put a lot of hard work into ensuring our Year 7 students had the spookiest time ever. Sales of sweets and drinks soared … it’s thirsty work scaring people!

Well done Maddie! Winner of the English Brooker Prize.

The influential Booker Prize is fifty years old next year and has brought much kudos to both novel and writer; did you know that Brooksbank awards its own reading prize? Now in its eleventh successful year, Brooksbank’s Brooker Prize is a nod to its famous older brother and similarly aims to pick a best novel – one for the book shelf, and a useful Christmas stocking-filler if you need one.

The end of half term celebration is hosted by the English department in the LRC; it aims to develop a passion for reading among our youngest students. Reading is the primary English focus for students in their first half term at Brooksbank, and Brooker adds new challenges of book promotion and public speaking.

The ten best recommendations are heard by a large crowd of attentive book lovers and you literally can hear a pin drop as presenters bravely stand up and speak.

This year’s Brooker Prize has been awarded to Maddie Eastwood in Form 7D. Maddie chose to present Tom Gates by L Pichon, as her novel recommendation. Maddie describes this richly illustrated read (which won the Blue Peter Award for Best Story) as, “Light-hearted and easy to read – which made me want to read it even more.”

As we all know, standing up and speaking to a large group of people takes some courage. Maddie took it all in her stride however, “I was a bit shaky and never expected to win. I was thrilled when I did, and couldn’t wait to go home and tell my mum the good news!”

In second place was Freddy Mitchell, also in 7D. Kietyn Oglilvie in 7N came third, and Pippa Rules-Hazzard, also in 7N, won a prize for best effort.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in our Brooker Prize celebration for 2018. Wonder which reader will win next year?